The Parrot Screens at the Franco Arab Film Festival in Amman, Jordan

Home Premiere in the Presence of Directors Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al-Rasheed

The Parrot Screens at the Franco Arab Film Festival in Amman, Jordan

The Parrot by directors Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al-Rasheed will be screening at the Short Film Night of the 23rd Franco Arab Film Festival along with two other short films from France. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the directors on Tuesday, July 11 at 9:00 pm (GMT+3) at the Royal Film Commission Jordan - RFC.

Landing its first screening in its production country, The Parrot ells the story of a Mizrahi Jewish family who emigrates from Tunisia and tries to settle into their new life in Haifa, Palestine in 1948. Directed by Darin J. Sallam and Amjad Al-Rasheed (Jordan), the film stars Hend Sabry, Ashraf Barhoum, Yasmine Ben Amara, Eyad Hourani, Firas Taybeh, Lara Sawalha, and Ahmad Al-Madani, and is written by Amjad Al Rasheed, Darin J. Sallam, and Rifqi Assaf.

The Parrot had its world premiere at the 13th Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) within the Muhr Short competition. The film is funded by the German foundation Robert Bosch Stiftung (RBS), which funds the Best German-Arab film projects. The Parrot received the 2015 Film Prize of RBS in the short fiction category and is a German/Jordanian co-production between the German company Monokel (Roman Roitman) and the Jordanian company TaleBox (Deema Azar). The film is distributed in the Arab world by MAD Solutions.

Organized by the French Embassy in Jordan and the French Institute of Jordan, the Franco Arab Film Festival is taking place from July 5-12, 2017. The festival aims to propose new films, expressing a link between France and the MENA region (topic, production or funding). It is also a unique occasion to discover films that are not screened in local commercial cinemas.

The Parrot is the 4th short film starring Hend Sabry; she previously collaborated with young directors in their shorts, namely; Sherif El Bendary's Rise and Shine, which screened in 75 festivals across more than 33 countries, the award-winning short Day and Night by Islam Azzazi, which took part in many festivals and won several awards, and the Tunisian film One Evening in July by Rajaa Amari.

Darin J. Sallam is a Jordanian director and writer who holds an MFA in Cinematic Arts from the Red Sea Institute for Cinematic Arts (RSICA). To her credit are five award winning short films including Still Alive and The Dark Outside, which received multiple awards and screened in internationally acclaimed film festivals worldwide. Her latest short fiction film The Parrot, a joint writing/directing project, received the 2015 Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. She is currently working on her debut feature narrative film project entitled Farha, recipient of the ART Award (presented at the 2016 DFC), the Emirati Ministry of Interior Award for Best Societal Screenplay (presented at the 2016 DIFF) and the Halo Post-Production Award (presented at the 2017 Pitching Forum in Espinho, Portugal). Sallam is also co-founder and managing partner at TaleBox, a Jordanian production company based in Amman.

Amjad Al Rasheed is a Jordanian director and producer who holds an MFA from the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts (RSICA). After receiving the Best Scenarist Award for short fiction at the First Film Production competition in Amman in 2005, Amjad started working as director, producer and production designer on music videos, short and feature films. In 2007, he attended Berlinale Talents at the 57th Berlinale Film Festival. His directing credits include five short films that screened at international film festivals. In 2013, he directed the Jordanian comedy series The Rania Show. Amjad is currently working on his debut feature, Inshallah A Boy - A Chapter from The Fabled Life Of Nawal. In December 2016, he was listed on ScreenDaily's 'Arab Stars of Tomorrow' among five emerging film talents from the Arab world.

Screening Time and Venue of The Parrot at the Franco Arab Film Festival in Jordan (GMT+3)Tuesday, July 11, at 09:00 pm at the Royal Film Commission Jordan - RFC